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Although we had some bumps along the way, Congress finally stood up for the American people and passed the Affordable Care Act. The law expands health care to millions of Americans who have been left without coverage and will offer a host of new consumer protections that ensure you get the best bang for your health care dollar.

Jennifer Jaff has worked for a decade as an advocate for people with chronic illness while struggling with Crohn’s disease and gastoparesis herself. In her youth, both disorders were not well understood and so Jennifer had to accept a minimal amount of treatment while working hard to graduate from law school. Her illness has played a destructive role in her life. During law school, she would sometimes have to be fed intravenously and let her body heal. She has had countless surgeries, several staph infections, and an autoimmune response to a medication.

Many of you have sent in questions about how the new health care law will affect you and your family. We’ve compiled answers for select questions to our experts in a short series to help you navigate changes to the health care system. Here's the latest:

Question: What is the future for the doughnut hole for medication for people on Medicare?

It’s no secret that the battle leading up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the subsequent months after have seen an onslaught of creative attacks from the opposition. From the threat of death panels to a government takeover of health care, the rhetoric has been over the top and constant, but this most recent attack out of the great state of Texas just might take the cake.

Those opposed to the Affordable Care Act have said a lot of crazy things to mislead Americans. From false talking points about health reform being responsible for double digit premium increases for policy holders, to the outright lie that the law is a “government takeover of health care,” the opposition has made it their job to misinform the public.

In the months leading up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the rhetoric on both sides of the issue became provocative, and in some cases, inflammatory. While this kind of partisan back and forth is not always productive, it is pretty much expected in the midst of a heated political debate. When this debate turned ugly, Americans looked to the news media to provide unbiased information and to explain provisions in the proposed law without a partisan lens.

For the past month, Families USA's Stand Up for Health Care has been sharing some of our historical health care heroes, outlining their views on how access to quality, affordable health care is a foundation for a more just society.

The rising cost of health coverage continues to burden families across the country. Whether you have coverage through your job or on the individual market, premium rates continue to outpace paychecks. Sometimes these increases in premium rates are in response to rising health care costs; however, not all rate increases are justified.

I was at a national conference of health care policy experts and advocates last month when the morning’s plenary speaker, Cindy Mann, Medicaid Director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, posed that ominous question. “Uh-oh. What have we done this time?”, I wondered, as I tentatively lifted my hand. But this time, Oklahoma was being singled out for major praise, not ridicule

Opponents of the new health reform law have called the legislation a "Socialist overhaul" and tried to make reform look like a plot to overthrow American values. But they're wrong: Ensuring access to health care is as American as apple pie and Social Security. Nearly a century ago, former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt took on the fight for health reform during his 1912 run for the Presidency on the Progressive Party ticket.